While Microsoft and International Business Machines Corp dominate the market for enterprise email, Google is trying to convince businesses to switch to its so-called cloud-based services, In which software is accessed over the Internet and maintained at Google’s data centers instead of on a company’s computers.
Cloud-based services can Provide cost and maintenance savings over traditional software, though recent high-profile outages – including an outage of Google’s Gmail last month – have raised questions about the reliability of online software for business users.
Google’s Apps business – which the company has said is profitable and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue a year – is a tiny portion of Google’s overall business, Which yielded almost $ 22 billion revenue last year.
According to spokesman Andrew Kovacs, its Apps team has doubled over the past year to more than 1,000 employees.
Said Google Apps is used by 2 million businesses, up from 1.75 million in June. Those include both larger businesses that pay $ 50 a year per user for Apps, as well as firms with fewer than 50 employees that get the software for free.
The company also said there are now 20 million active users of Google Apps, up from 15 million in June, Although that number included students who use the free version Google provides to universities.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/
